Ghost Ranch: the day trip that's worth the 1.5-hour drive.

Ghost Ranch is about a 1.5-hour scenic drive north of Santa Fe, in Abiquiu, NM — the red-and-gold badlands Georgia O'Keeffe painted from her porch. It's the day trip we recommend most often when guests have four full days.

The hike to do is Chimney Rock — a steady climb to a mesa-top view of the whole Piedra Lumbre basin, the kind of trail where the photos don't quite capture the scale of it. We particularly love this one.

Horseback riding is also available at Ghost Ranch — a slower, more meditative way to take in the landscape, with a guide who knows the terrain.

For lunch, two good options nearby: Fire and Ice, or Café Abiquiu & LaTerraza. Either one rounds out the day.

If 1.5 hours each way is more than your group is up for, the alternates are Bandelier National Monument (cliff dwellings, well-maintained trails — arrive early to beat the crowds) and Rancho de Chimayó for an authentic New Mexican lunch and the historic chapel right next door. Both are good shorter days. Ghost Ranch is the long one, and it's the one we'd choose.